The saffron organisation aims to start a Rashtriya Isai Manch. But its affiliates continue to attack minorities across India.

As the Christian clergy and laity
in India prepare to meet on February 13 to discuss the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh’s attempts to reach out to them to form a Christian outfit affiliated to
the Sangh, I’m reminded of the first time I met the Sangh leadership outside
the limited opportunity journalism gave me and Narendra Modi, the man who would
be Prime Minister.

This was in 1998, a traumatic
year for India’s Christian community as it marked the beginning of a period, which
is yet to end, when it found itself at the wrong end of a violent interface.

There were 24 documented
incidents of violence against Christians in 1998, and more were to come. These
included the destruction of two and a half dozen small churches in the Dangs
district of Gujarat and the burning alive of Australian leprosy worker Graham
Stuart Staines and his sons Timothy and Philip in January 1999 in Orissa by
Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh.

At that time, the RSS leadership
in Nagpur and the leaders at its Delhi office in Jhandewalan made the first of
many overtures to hold a "dialogue" with the Christian community. I had a close encounter with Modi at the first
such event. This was before he was parachuted into Ahmedabad as the Sangh’s
choice as chief minister. He had accompanied the late KS Sudershan, who was then
RSS chief, to the offices of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India in New
Delhi to meet a Christian group led by Archbishop Alan de Lastic, the late
Archbishop of Delhi who was the head of the Catholic church in India at the
time.

Inter-faith dialogue

This was not a structured “formal
dialogue”, but the Archbishop was persuaded to meet them after several intermediaries
including a US-based Christian scholar who claimed he was doing a doctoral
research study on interreligious dialogue, pressed him to do so. The man did
not explain why the dialogue was fixed with the RSS chief and not with the
several Shankaracharyas and heads of various sects or “mutts” in India, or even
with the Ramakrishna Mission with whom the Church has regularly been in touch through
its interfaith dialogue commissions for years.

The archbishop insisted that the
talk be held at his headquarters in New Delhi and not at the RSS offices, or
even a “neutral” venue. He chose a delegation of clergy, women and some
laypersons, including me, to join the meeting.

The meeting was the disaster that
the archbishop had anticipated. Modi spoke very little but Sudershan was
articulate in his Opposition to Hindus converting to Christianity, which he
implied was not by their own volition but by some fraud by Christian priests.
He wanted the Church to stop conversions immediately.

Archbishop Alan tried to explain
to him the theological underpinning of conversion, a change of heart and
mindset. I do not think Sudershan was listening. The Sangh sees conversions as
a cultural war against Hinduism and "Bharat Mata" funded by the evil West.
Sudarshan said no one converts as a matter of choice, a concept of which he was
perhaps ignorant. One of the women in our delegation, a social worker and
communications expert from Nagpur who was an official of the Church of North
India, told Sudershan that she was the daughter of a Hindu upper caste family
who had converted to Christianity of her own volition. Not expecting this explanation,
from a woman at that, Sudarshan kept quiet. That was the end of the meeting. It
did not change a thing.

A national debate

After the Christmas violence in the
Dangs, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who as prime minister at the time, was persuaded to survey the
area. He saw the destruction and promptly called for a national debate – not on
communal and targeted violence but on conversions to Christianity and the need
to curtail or curb them.

There have been a few more close
encounters between the Church leadership and the Sangh since then. The biggest
was in Bhubaneswar after several cases of murder, arson and rape against
Christians in Kandhamal district of Orissa in 2007 and 2008.

One hundred and twenty people
died in that violence and as many as 56,000 persons were displaced. Many women were
raped and 6,000 houses and 300 churches were also burnt down. Though the deaths
were not in the same league as Nellie in 1983, Gujarat in 2002 and Delhi in 1984,
Kandhamal ranks along with these horrific incidents because the violence
targeting religious minorities had an element of state impunity and complicity.

The Bhubaneswar dialogue also
ended in failure with the RSS harping solely on a ban on conversions and refusing
to put on paper its acceptance of communal harmony.

The urge to talk

Now, the Church – Catholic and
Protestant – loves dialogue. It is a tenet of Catholic teachings and various
Popes have propounded on the need for continuous dialogue. It lays special
emphasis on dialogue for peace, against terrorism, and for the welfare of
people.

It does not see dialogue as
capitulation to evil, violence, or to moral issues contrary to the values
taught by Jesus Christ. This is perhaps why many in the church still look
askance at some of the actions of the Church during Hitler’s rule in Germany.

But many in the Church love
dialogue perhaps because it gives them access to those in power, or allows them
to declare their “nationalism” and roots in Indian culture. The Sangh and the
BJP have played on this psychology with great finesse, teasing and enticing
various denominations especially in Kerala.

Thus, Christian votaries of
dialogue don’t really attempt to fully understand the “other” but close their eyes
to the reality of that entity, its history and track record. This is perhaps
why the history of the RSS record vis-a-vis the Muslim community does not seem to
matter for the religious leadership of the Christian community who are open to
dialogue.

The anticipation of a dialogue,
and a planned move against it by a section of the Christian community, came
amid reports of a proposal to start a Rashtriya Isai Manch along the lines of
its other organisations for Sikhs and Muslims (never mind that these bodies
remain mostly on paper with a few minority representatives heading them for the
occasional show at election time). The manch’s purported aim is to build goodwill
among both communities and the proposal is spearheaded by Indresh Kumar, a
member of the RSS’ national executive, who has been accused of instigating communal
violence in Orissa.

Uncertain framework

No one knows what will be the
terms of reference of any such dialogue. What will the Christian community even
seek in such a dialogue? Will the Christian leadership want to be left alone or
seek a certificate from the RSS that it is a "good Christian community"? Will
it give up its activities, including preaching about Jesus Christ? Will it agree
to confine itself and its rituals behind closed doors? Will the Christian
leadership promise that it will run its schools, colleges and hospitals in
India as mere social work or commercial establishments and not reach out to the
poor, the Dalits and tribals and other marginalised people?

Perhaps there also needs to be a
dialogue within the Sangh Parivar on how they want to see religious minorities who
have inhabited the motherland for centuries. Do RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat and Indresh
Kumar, the Sangh pointpersons for religious minorities, see any contradiction in
setting up Sikh, Muslim and Isai manchs? Have they read the foundation
documents of their own group, those honest works of Veer Savarkar and MS Golwalkar?
Do they denounce these or the more recent pronouncements of scores of their top
leaders including members of Parliament?

Bhagwat should recall his own
words:

“They went away [to another religion because of some allurement and thus there is nothing wrong in bringing them back to original fold. It is like a thief who steals our valuables. The chief is caught and we will get our valuables back. They are ours.”

Referring to Teresa of Kolkata,
Bhagwat said that her “service to the destitute, since she was converting
them to Christianity, devalued… a noble cause”.

Indresh Kumar is equally
forthright in his speeches and writings. He wrote an open letter to Pope
Benedict XVI saying:

"Conversion to Christianity in the pretext of service, health, education and co-operation is an insult and devaluation to the service itself and a crime against humanity. It proves that your services are selfish motivated and expansionist as well as intolerant. Wherever the Christian missionaries are active and powerful, the hatred, crime, social unrest, separatism, addiction are on the increase and the environment of peace, harmony, brotherhood and happiness are fading away."

Attacks continue

The tonsuring of pastors who are put
on asses and paraded, cases of ghar wapsi in North and Central India, and
routine violence against churches – some 250 or so recorded incidents take
place in an average year – provide the backdrop of the proposal to set up a
Rashtriya Isai Manch with the help of the Christian community in India.

Should Christians or any
other community even seek bilateral treaties with various groups in India? This
suggestion is fraught with serious consequences for the unity of the country.
All communities have to live together, and this can happen only if they swear
common allegiance to the Constitution and the rule of law. We shudder to think
of a situation when two or more communities gang up against a third. This has
happened in some nations which have been rent asunder by civil strife.

Yes, dialogue is good. We need to hold dialogues with other
spiritual traditions. We need to hold dialogues with different Christian
denominations. In the Catholic Church, there must be a healthy dialogue between
the laity, the religious and the clergy. This is essential for a healthy
church. So let us begin with this essential dialogue and let the RSS learn more
about India and its Constitution.

The right machine can save water, power consumption, time, energy and your clothes from damage.

In 2010, Han Rosling, a Swedish statistician, convinced a room full of people that the washing machine was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution. In the TED talk delivered by him, he illuminates how the washing machine freed women from doing hours of labour intensive laundry, giving them the time to read books and eventually join the labour force. Rosling’s argument rings true even today as it is difficult to deny the significance of the washing machine in our everyday lives.

For many households, buying a washing machine is a sizable investment. Oddly, buyers underestimate the importance of the decision-making process while buying one and don’t research the purchase as much as they would for a television or refrigerator. Most buyers limit their buying criteria to type, size and price of the washing machine.

Visible technological advancements can be seen all around us, making it fair to expect a lot more from household appliances, especially washing machines. Here are a few features to expect and look out for before investing in a washing machine:

Cover your basics

Do you wash your towels every day? How frequently do you do your laundry? Are you okay with a bit of manual intervention during the wash cycle? These questions will help filter the basic type of washing machine you need. The semi-automatics require manual intervention to move clothes from the washing tub to the drying tub and are priced lower than a fully-automatic. A fully-automatic comes in two types: front load and top load. Front loading machines use less water by rotating the inner drum and using gravity to move the clothes through water.

Simple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machine

Size matters

The size or the capacity of the machine is directly proportional to the consumption of electricity. The right machine capacity depends on the daily requirement of the household. For instance, for couples or individuals, a 6kg capacity would be adequate whereas a family of four might need an 8 kg or bigger capacity for their laundry needs. This is an important factor to consider since the wrong decision can consume an unnecessary amount of electricity.

Machine intelligence that helps save time

In situations when time works against you and your laundry, features of a well-designed washing machine can come to rescue. There are programmes for urgent laundry needs that provide clean laundry in a super quick 15 to 30 minutes’ cycle; a time delay feature that can assist you to start the laundry at a desired time etc. Many of these features dispel the notion that longer wash cycles mean cleaner clothes. In fact, some washing machines come with pre-activated wash cycles that offer shortest wash cycles across all programmes without compromising on cleanliness.

The green quotient

Despite the conveniences washing machines offer, many of them also consume a substantial amount of electricity and water. By paying close attention to performance features, it’s possible to find washing machines that use less water and energy. For example, there are machines which can adjust the levels of water used based on the size of the load. The reduced water usage, in turn, helps reduce the usage of electricity. Further, machines that promise a silent, no-vibration wash don’t just reduce noise – they are also more efficient as they are designed to work with less friction, thus reducing the energy consumed.

Customisable washing modes

Crushed dresses, out-of-shape shirts and shrunken sweaters are stuff of laundry nightmares. Most of us would rather take out the time to hand wash our expensive items of clothing rather than trusting the washing machine. To get the dirt out of clothes, washing machines use speed to first agitate the clothes and spin the water out of them, a process that takes a toll on the fabric. Fortunately, advanced machines come equipped with washing modes that control speed and water temperature depending on the fabric. While jeans and towels can endure a high-speed tumble and spin action, delicate fabrics like silk need a gentler wash at low speeds. Some machines also have a monsoon mode. This is an India specific mode that gives clothes a hot rinse and spin to reduce drying time during monsoons. A super clean mode will use hot water to clean the clothes deeply.

Washing machines have come a long way, from a wooden drum powered by motor to high-tech machines that come equipped with automatic washing modes. Bosch washing machines include all the above-mentioned features and provide damage free laundry in an energy efficient way. With 32 different washing modes, Bosch washing machines can create custom wash cycles for different types of laundry, be it lightly soiled linens, or stained woollens. The ActiveWater feature in Bosch washing machines senses the laundry load and optimises the usage of water and electricity. Its EcoSilentDrive motor draws energy from a permanent magnet, thereby saving energy and giving a silent wash. The fear of expensive clothes being wringed to shapelessness in a washing machine is a common one. The video below explains how Bosch’s unique VarioDrumTM technology achieves damage free laundry.